Genre Films

There is a moment early in Kenneth Branagh’s intricately constructed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunnit when Hercule Poirot (Branagh) stands on the deck of a ship as it leaves Istanbul. Poirot is captured center frame: The deck, the railing, the adjacent cabin and the sea itself are balanced perfectly around him. The shot is…

It isn’t often that the landscape of a motion picture becomes as integral as the acting, writing or direction, but in the newest Ridley Scott (“Prometheus”) outer space adventure, The Martian, the planet’s crimson hues, frozen nights and horrifying sand/dust storms bring the story of an explorer stranded there with little help of survival to…

With film franchises rebooting every few years, it’s surprising that this series took so long to take the plunge. The first version, “Fantastic Four,” was released by 20th Century Fox in the summer of 2005, when critics called it, “’Spider-Man’ times four,” although at the time, I described it as “Spider-Man” *divided* by four, since…

Four years. That’s a long time to try and survive on a planet that doesn’t sustain human life. But in Ridley Scott’s The Martian, that’s what astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) must do. Based off of the best selling novel by Andy Weir, the stranded scientist has to put to use all knows (and learn…

Perhaps not to have their property be drowned out with the flurry of recent high-value trailers (“Ant-Man,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”), 20th Century Fox sets loose another trailer for their upcoming superhero movie, The Fantastic Four. With it, they may also be showing off a bit too…

Over the course of three films, Neill Blomkamp has demonstrated a consistent interest in the body and the effects of the world upon it. “District 9” featured transformation into the undesirable while “Elysium” highlighted the inscription of class divisions onto the body. Chappie continues this conceit but with a reversal of Blomkamp’s debut — rather…

A good comic book property can’t sit idle for long, nor should it. Having waited an eternity (eight years) 20th Century Fox is finally poised to forget about 2007’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and reboot their family of superheroes with The Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, much of it appears to be an origin…